Midwestern Metalhead

Interview: Dave Peterman (Ogrefest)

2011-04-08T11:47:00.000-07:00

I have been waiting for this for some time.

Although I've mentioned it before, i will repeat: Ogrefest is the best local metal showcase i have ever been to, and improves with every passing year. I have seen almost every sort of metal someone could think of represented on the stage of Mac's Bar. Most of those bands wreck, hard. In a good way.

The following is my interview with lead singer/guitarist of Lansing Death Metal stalwarts Satyriasis, as well as the man behind Ogrefest, David Peterman. It is because of him that i discovered bands I love like Dagon, Maggot Twat, and Sauron.

What he has done for Michigan's metal scene is of paramount importance and cannot be undone.

Ogrefest 2011 will be held at Mac's Bar in Lansing, Michigan on April 16th, 2011. It will run from 12 p.m. to 2 a.m.

I will be covering Ogrefest and if you read this I encourage you to find me there. I will be performing Blitzkrieg interviews with as many bands as I possibly can there. Set times are under the interview.

See you in the pit.

How did Ogrefest begin?

D-The idea for Ogrefest really began in 2005. Satyrasis was struggling to keep a competent line-up together and hadn't played a show in nearly 2 years. Since myspace and facebook were in their infancy, inter-band networking wasn't at all what it was today...and it was tough for a band with no contacts whatsoever to get on a cool metal show in Detroit or Lansing. After laboring intensely to get on some shows in those cities with no result, I said fuck it...and decided to throw our own show. We had a shitty bar in Howell that only townies drank in, and the owner didn't much care WHO played there as long as people were drinking. So i got a hold of some of the bands we DID know...and I booked the date. The show needed a name, because there we no bands on it with any sort of public standing....so i had to come up with one. I knew it was going to be a ___Fest of some kind i just didn't know what that was going to be. One of our friends remarked..."just call it DAVEFEST".....and needless to say I wasn't exactly down with that. Naming your fest after a dude or calling your fest DUDEFEST is something you if you're an ironic metal hipster or if you happen to be in Downtown Brown. Back then there was a large amount of kids in pop-punk bands who were into metal as an ironic inside joke, and you got made fun of for REALLY being into metal. (ALL of these kids are now in metalcore bands) So I had to do whatever I could to differentiate this show from those kids of shows. I never had a "real" nickname that I was called on a daily basis, but there was a time, just after i moved to Howell, that two separate kids, who knew me only by sight, referred to me as "Ogre" to Matt (satyrasis' guitarist) when they asked him who was in his band. I always got a huge kick out of that, and while i was thinking of names...it popped in there. OGREFEST... it was perfect....kind of humorous....but still totally metal if i needed it to be. The 2005 show didn't happen, our drummer quit and a couple of bands dropped off and I put the idea on a shelf. In the Fall of 2006 while I was in Genocya, we were driving home from a show in Detroit and we drove by that same bar and I remarked,"I was gonna throw a show there once". To which their drummer Tim (Sever, certified Michigan Metal Legend) said "why don't you do another one?"
To which i replied...."I don't know". I started booking 2007 the next month...and we've been going ever since.

Ogrefest started small and intimate, and still is, but now has taken on sort of a local cult status as an annual event, a tradition, yes? How has Ogrefest grown from something small into what it is today?

D-I don't know if Ogrefest is quite a tradition, yet. Tradition is a pretty strong word, that carries a lot of weight and responsibility. But I definitely think we have the potential to be one if we can keep growing and evolving like we have. This being the fifth anniversary, a banner year...as it were, I guess some reflection is warranted. We did start out small, in a bum-fuck outer realm suburb that nobody cares about and were able to bring the show to Lansing, which I guess was a little bit more of a coup than I thought it was at the time. One of the bigger reasons we've been successful is we haven't got greedy. By 2009, we had drummed up enough interest that I could've made the festival 2 days, with 50 bands and quite easily charged 25 bucks a head and fucking cleaned up. But I have to stick to my guns...Ogrefest isn't about exploitation and mediocrity. To do shows like that, you have to cheat bands by asking them to jump through bogus hoops like playing at 9:00 am for no money and you are forced to book bands that quite frankly, nobody wants to sit through, which drives fans absolutely nuts. There's nothing worse than heading to a show at 6:00 pm and not seeing a band worth watching until midnight. It's so tiresome, and most shows are like that. So I decided that Ogrefest would be the antithesis of all that bullshit...a show filled with quality, not just quantity. It's a strategy that I'm happy to say has paid off in the fest's longevity. We may not be the biggest fest, with the largest crowd....but fans know that when they buy a ticket they're getting every dollar's worth. When you give people something of value, they have a tendency to keep coming back. I’d much rather say that i put on a a killer metalfest for years than say I made a killing on this one fest that I booked....

2 days and 50 bands is pretty big! Why do you think Ogrefest has expanded and thrived so much (at least enough that you get to selectively make cuts to keep the size down)?

D-There's really no trick to getting a lot of bands to ask to be on a show. It's the old Field of Dreams adage, "If you build it...they will come" All you have to have is a show, and they will come out of the woodwork, from ends of the spectrum you didn't even know existed. The real trick is finding the right bands in the pile.

If Ogrefest, or ‘an Ogrefest band’ is defined, in a sense as in opposition to that pop/metalcore aesthetic and scene, what is the Ogrefest aesthetic/scene in and of itself? By this I mean what makes a band ‘an Ogrefest band?’

D-I wouldn't ever define us or our aesthetic as an opposition to certain genres....An Ogrefest band has to be real and bring something to the table musically. And there's no one "scene" of bands that plays the show. When you're talking "scenes" , Battlecross & Sauron (for example) have nothing in common....the same with Dagon & Acid Witch, Theocracide & Cavalcade...but they've all done Ogrefest because they do something well and deserve to be heard. It doesn't matter if it's trendy that week, or how many facebook likes they have....

The metalcore/deathcore scene that is largely absent from Ogrefest (perhaps we might call this the Dirtfest Crowd)—it is also very powerful in Michigan/the Midwest in general? Shouldn’t the two sides of the family re-unite? What is stopping such a union?

D-I've tried this very thing you've suggested, for at least three years....and I'm done with it. It was a dumb idea. It's like trying to get a monkey to fuck a platypus....it just isn't gonna work.

Why? Every one of these bands that I've tried to work with has been greedy, unappreciative and self-aggrandizing. They insist that they deserve more than bands who have been around twice as long and worked twice as hard and it's just so damn depressing.

Touching a bit on your last question, There IS a difference between an Ogrefest band and these bands; that difference is music. For the bands that play Ogrefest, music isn't treated as just the byproduct of being in a band. For them, the small inconvenience of music is overcome by buying the right guitars, getting the right haircut and knowing the right graphic designer. For us music is what we love and why we do what we do. All the posturing and posing is a distant second.

To be honest, how would Ogrefest benefit by having half a day of malformed, under-thought, bandwagon jumpers on it's roster? It wouldn't.

You get bands from other states—how do you find these bands and decide to have them play?

D-They're just bands that come across my desk one way or another....somebody might've played a show with them on tour or they came through town once before. Sometimes they're label mates of a band that's playing or just a band that we dig a whole bunch.

How many bands, and what sort of bands, apply to get booked on Ogrefest?

D-Well, as far as an exact number, you'll have to ask my accounting & auditing department. As far as the sort of bands, pretty much any kind of metal band that's around. Use your imagination and you won't be very far off.

By extension, how do you set the bill up?

D-It's probably not as calculated as most would imagine, but it's certainly not just thrown together in a haphazard jumble either. There is a method to the madness, which I would be remiss in divulging to media outlets without promises of cold, hard cash.

This specific year there seems to be a bit of a ‘retro’ theme—Acid Witch and High Spirits are both pretty openly throwback acts, and they’re at top billing. By contrast, last year seemed to be a bit more melodic death themed, and the year before much more gore-y. Are these trends real and pre-meditated, or do they come out of chance…or maybe I’m just imagining things?

D-That's an interesting take on things. Interesting enough that I'm certainly not going to trample on it pontifically.....I'm glad that people appreciate the bill enough to look into it like that.

What is the worst part about organizing and putting on Ogrefest?

D-Dealing with egos. For all the hollering and posturing, guys in metal bands can act like drag queens at a wig clearance. Everybody thinks they deserve to go on in the headline spot, nobody wants to play first OR last, set's too short, can't show up on time...yada, yada, yada. It's definitely not the standard, but every year i get one or two that have to pitch a bitch. Must be some sort of cosmic law when throwing a metal fest....

What is the best part?

D-The Chicks.

Why isn’t Maggot Twat playing again!?!?!

D-I think they've been staying close to home because of personal issues and that they're working on a new record. If it's in my power to get them back, they'll be back. That band is criminally underrated and their set in 2008 is still one of the highlights of Ogrefest for me.

You mentioned Maggot Twat as a fond Ogrefest memory (one of my fondest concert memories EVER, actually) What is your fondest Ogrefest memory?

D-Well there's two. The first is a personal favorite, which probably seems pretty meaningless to everyone else, The second I think defines the very essence of what Ogrefest is all about.

2008: Maggot Twat's Popcorn shenanigans during the Satyrasis set.

2009: Sauron concludes the night with Breakin' the Law and incites an impromptu sing-along featuring members of the bands from that night and the weary spectators. It was a cool moment and may have been a high water mark for metal in Lansing. I know it seemed that way.

As director/curator/organizer of Ogrefest, you qualify as some sort of authority on ‘the local scene’ how would your characterize the scene? What are its unique aspects/big influences/strengths/weaknesses?

D-Comments on the scene, eh? Just when I think it's dying, it surprises the hell out of me.

Michigan Metal and it's scenes are by and large just geographical, which I like to analogize as the spokes of a wheel with Lansing as a hub. Lansing has all the creativity, Detroit has all the people. Flint is a ghost town and Grand Rapids can't figure out who they want to be. West Michigan is too far away to affect anything, but has some diamonds in the rough and Toledo has yet to realize it's not 1998 anymore.

Our unique aspects are the bands who are fighting the good fight to keep the "scene" alive and well. The only central influence we have might have in common is each other. Our strength is our individuality. Our weakness is competition with each other.

How would you characterize the Lansing scene specifically?

D-The Lansing Scene's characters are what make it difficult to characterize. But if I had to use a single word it would be: Original. Nowhere else in the state and dare I say, the Midwest, resides such a cache of independently-minded metal bands. Lansing has talent and ingenuity in spades and what they lack in glamor and sophistication is made up with drive and a willingness to tell the masses to get fucked. I couldn't think of a better place to have a metal fest.

If Lansing is the Michigan Metal hub, and Mac’s Bar (with maybe the Blackened Moon as competition) is the epicenter of Lansing’s scene (as it seems to be), what is it about Mac’s Bar that makes it such sacred or fertile ground for metal? How did your relationship with Mac’s Bar begin?

D-I think you're giving Blackened Moon credit it has yet to earn.

Mac's is successful because Chuck allows the bands to participate in their own success. If you ask to put on a show and have a roster of bands that will bring some people to the bar...he'll probably let you book it. In fact, we deal with Mac's so much in Lansing....we forget how shitty it is in other cities, where club owners are only concerned with how much dough they can squeeze out of everybody. Sometimes it feels a little like the kids running the school, but ultimately it works out to everyone's advantage. When the artists and promoters who are genuinely interested in perpetuating a scene are allowed to work unfettered...it builds a solid reputation with the fans...a reputation that much harder to build as a club owner who has to make decisions based on a bottom line. Mac's before Chuck was a little bit more of a hipster spot, and was very selective in the metal it brought in...and when Chuck took over and allowed the scene to do its thing...it really took off.

My relationship with Mac's began when I was looking for a new venue for Ogrefest in 2008. Scotty from Bermuda Mohawk had been booking there since Chuck took over and he pointed me in his direction. It has worked out quite well.

What about Michigan as a state colors the native music, do you think?

D-This is a good question. And I can simply answer with another question...What about it doesn't?

People don't often look to Michigan as one of the Great States of the Union, both geographically and culturally. And while I'm totally biased, I've never saw it as anything but. To lump Michigan in with the Midwest is convenient, but doesn't quite paint the whole picture of us. We're much more Northern in attitude than some of our neighboring states, which comes from more winter and a touch more isolation. While we're not cut off from culture in any way, we're also not on the I-80 corridor that cuts the country in two and virtually guarantees that bands are passing by you. And while Detroit continues to have the highest drawing concert venue in the Nation (DTE,) it means that bands that are lower on the totem pole don't always have the resources to make it up here. Roughly translated, Michiganders live for music, but have trouble attracting ALL the awesome tours that Cleveland and Chicago get, because we're 3 hours north. This annoyance has a two pronged effect. We take our locals more seriously and we work harder to bring in bands that we really like. This kind of environment has a big effect on Michigan bands and fosters an underdog mentality that hard to shake. Unlike a place like Brooklyn or Chicago, where thousands of certified hacks move every year to be part of the "scene"....we build our own fucking scene. There's a distinct difference.

If logistical anomalies and geographic location are what shape our brains, it's Michigan herself that shapes our hearts. Even those among us who truly hate the fact that they have to make music here...maybe even more so. So much has been made of the collapse of the Auto Industry and you really can't understate it's significance on the populace. Michigan to a very large extent was Ford, GM and Chrysler...for a lot of years, before that it was Mining before that, Logging...so we've made these sort of industrial transitions before and we'll make them again. While the collapse has shaped the narrative of this generation it certainly isn't all that we are. The auto industry is collapsing in Ohio and Illinois too, but their bands don't sound like ours. I think what balances out all the industrial malaise and rust belt ennui is the fact that nobody in this state is ever more than 80 miles the largest bodies of freshwater in the world. We have all this industry and all this blight and can hop in the car for an hour and be surrounded by some seriously unmatched natural glory. Does this erase the fact that we live in Redford or Flint or the south side of Lansing, not at all, but i think it does instill an air of possibility that doesn't exist in Chillicothe, Ohio or that town that Jack and Diane are from. It provides Michiganders with the distinct sense that their crappy farming town or burnt out city isn't the only reality available and that perspective is invaluable when it comes to creating music that moves people in some way.

Something else that people often overlook as a factor in the kind of music that we make is our education. Michigan has one of the best university systems in the country and most of the people that are making our music have went to college at one of them, or have a guy in their band that did. Does that mean going to college makes your music better.... clearly, no. It does mean, however, that our musicians are capable of creatively critical thinking...which is vital to the creation of interesting music.

“Major” (I use the term SO loosely…) metal labels tend to overlook the Midwest, including Michigan. This is absurd to me as IMHO the Michigan scene’s best can hang with national and international big-name metal bands. To what do you attribute this blind eye to our area of the country?

D-I don't think they overlook us. They just sign the bands that can sell their records the quickest. If you're from Tibet and can sell 20,000 records.....you'll get signed. Money Talks.

Do you have any goals for Ogrefest’s future, pipe dreams or not, either specific or general?

D-This year's fest will have a lot to to with what the future will entail for Ogrefest. I think if we keep having the kind of success we've been having some kind of expansion might be in order. I have some ideas, but nothing concrete yet. We'll see how things progress.
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Ogrefest is a week from today.

The lineup is as follows:

2:00 - 12:30 The Virally Enthroned
12:45 – 1:15 Flood the Desert
1:30 – 2:00 Dozic
2:15 – 2:45 Burn the Hearse
3:00 - 3:30 Teratoma
3:45 – 4:15 Infinite Design
4:30 – 5:00 Fable of Deceit
5:15 – 5:45 Ultrathrash
6:00 – 6:30 Sworn Secrecy
6:45 – 7:15 The Devastator
7:30 – 8:00 Bullpig
8:15 – 8:45 Heavy Lies the Crown
9:00 - 9:30 Wastelander
9:45 – 10:15 High Spirits
10:30 – 11:00 Satyrasis
11:15 – 11:45 Acid Witch
12:00 - 12:30 Genocya
12:45 – 1:15 Dagon
1:30 – 2:00 Araphat

$12 at the door. ALL AGES until 10pm! Show starts at Noon sharp!

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Find Ogrefest on
FACEBOOK
and
MYSPACE

Interview: Masakari (1 of 2)

2011-04-06T11:07:00.000-07:00

Masakari are, without a doubt, one of the best bands operating in the Midwest right now.

Their sound is rambunctious, but also sly. In a day and age where deathcore bands are playing hi-fi death metal with hardcore breakdowns, Masakari flip the dynamic: they play noisy hardcore with old-school death metal guitar licks and distortion.
The end result is mouth watering.

In the first of two interviews with the band, I discuss the differences and similarities between punk and metal, as well as the business of DIY extreme music in the year 2011, with guitarist Joe Yanick.

We also discuss a 7” release available for pre-order HERE

First of all congratulations on getting on both Maryland Deathfest and South by Southwest. That’s impressive for a debut record. To what do you attribute people taking up your band in this way so quickly?

J-To be honest it’s kind of surprising us, too. As far as Maryland Deathfest, we got in contact with the guy who was putting the band list together through Greg [Anderson] from Southern Lord [who released The Prophet Feeds on CD]. He said we got in touch with him at just the right time—he was putting the list together and had just listened to the album. We had seen a couple of other Southern Lords bands on the list and some other bands that sound like us, so it seemed like the perfect time to try and get on.

And South by Southwest—Greg set that show up. He first heard our 7” when Corey from Halo of Flies [record label, not band] put it out. He just called Corey and said “I love this band; I want to help out with the new release.”

Really it’s been quite amusing because the amount of work has been surprisingly less than we anticipated! A lot has been happening, it’s awesome.

There seems to be resurgence in the metal community’s interest in hardcore—or at the very least noisy grimy hardcore—because there’s been a lot of critical acclaim for bands like you, Black Breath and The Secret. I know you guys are fans of The Secret because I totally stalk you on facebook like a weirdo… and here you are about to be playing with them. How does that feel?

J-I’m really excited. That The Secret release was definitely in my top 5 albums from last year. We’ve corresponded with them through email and twitter and they seem like very cool guys. I’ve seen videos of them live and it looks just perfect. We’re playing Cleveland with them and then again at South by Southwest. Should be a good time.

When are you playing with them in Cleveland?

J-March 30th. Them, Funeral Pyre, us, and my friend from PA’s band, Old Accusers. They sound like Doom mixed with Hardcore.

That sounds great. I loved Funeral Pyre’s record in 2010, The Secret’s record, your record. It’s sold out isn’t it? The Prophet Feeds, I mean.

J-Yeah, I guess we’re saying sold out. The LP version at least, but not the CD. The thing is Corey distributes us in America and he pressed a substantial amount. I think 1,500 copies split between 4 labels. There was only one American label—there was a Greek label and two German labels. I know both German labels still have copies. So, you can’t get them directly from the label that pressed it, you need to import it or track it down. But I wouldn’t say sold out—you can still go on a webstore and find them. On my last tour I saw it in stores. Corey doesn’t have any more copies but is looking to do a second pressing sometime this summer. We wanted one by our tour in May, but that’s probably not going to happen. Time issues.

your EP is being repressed as well, right?

J- We didn’t want to originally because we’ve done two pressings already, a 500 press and then a 90 press we took on tour with us. Corey thought [one more] repressing would be a good idea because a lot of people still don’t have it. So we decided we would change the cover because we wanted it to be something different. We wanted it to be more fun so we pressed it on three colors, 100 on white, 100 on green, and 100 on blue.

Isn’t it also available for free download?

J- When we first released it we also put it up for download. It’s always been kind of our motto that you don’t pay for the music, you pay for the packaging and the physical copy. I think the free download helped us get the word out there because we went to the blogs that were just going to rip and post it anyway and gave it to them ourselves. The bloggers said that was really cool and we get a lot of comments from people saying ‘it was sweet that you did that.’ We wanted to do it with the album, too, but Greg put up most of the money so we would be cutting into his profits and that wouldn’t be fair, so it wasn’t really possible with the album. The plan is for most of our 7”s to be released with a free download.

There is also a 7-day tour this May, right?

J-7 day tour with Rise and Fall, 3 days after that by ourselves, a festival in Ohio and then Maryland Deathfest, so all in all it’s going to be 12 dates. May is looking very busy for us.

The sound on The Prophet Feeds is very textured and nuanced for a debut, which leads me to believe that this is not your first band. What’s the history of Masakari?

J-Combined we’ve been playing in bands since we were 12 or 13. I’m 22 now and our oldest member is 24, so we’re still a young band. We’ve all played together in other bands in the Cleveland scene. When we started Masakari we pieced together who we thought would make the sound we liked.

John was in another band and we watched it for a long time—he just killed it on drums—so we knew we wanted him. We’ve been through some lineup changes.

I was playing in a band in Pittsburgh called Heartless, and we brought their bassist on tour with us to Europe. It worked so well we asked him to join. The singer and I are brothers, so we’ve been in bands together before.

Our other guitarist started on bass and moved to guitar. When we started as a one guitar band I was doing more melodic guitar lines, which are still present but we’ve toned down. The primary sound of the music was melodic and we wanted it to be heavier going into the EP. We still wanted to be melodic but we wanted short, simple songs without a lot of repetition. I’m really happy with the current lineup and hope it will stay that way.

When I listen to the record they are short simple songs, but they all blend together. To me, The Prophet Feeds is one song first, and then a series of other songs second—there aren’t these clean breaks between the songs. That works with the roman numeral pattern you’ve been doing even since before The Prophet Feeds . Was that a conscious decision or something that came together in the studio?

J- As far as the roman numerals go, we’ve been asked it in the past. On the 7” after it was released we got this email: “they’re actually counting down, does this mean you’re breaking up?”

[laughs]

The roman numerals are actually quite arbitrary: they’re the order in which that song was written. There is no one or two because the first two songs we wrote as a band we didn’t like, so we discarded them. Actually, the first three we discarded. The 7” is 7 to 4 counting down just because that’s the order we liked them in. On the album—those songs were very much a product of how they flowed with one another. We would play them live in order and then switch the order and kept changing it around to feel how well the songs played until we liked it. Those albums where each song stops and then a pause and then the next song… there are good albums like that, but those are the albums that people end up not listening to as a full album. Our album is 27 minutes long with a 6 minute outro, so I wanted people to be able to sit down, listen to it in one sitting and then maybe listen to it again. I do that with my favorite records. We figured if it flowed really well people would do that, so we were very particular about what should flow into what, what clips to use. We weren’t as successful as I want to be. I wanted to do more, but in the studio we were just taking longer than I wanted, and a lot of stuff got cut. It’s good in a way because I don’t think this will be our best album. Now that I’ve sat down with it a few times I like it a lot more; I’m proud of it. We’re going to keep writing better and better records, though.

I say mission accomplished. When I listen to your album it’s like Reign in Blood in that I have the first track’s beginning memorized and after that it flows and I end up saying to myself a half hour later ‘It’s over? Really? It felt like five minutes.’ And I play the record again.

J- Thank you very much. It actually makes it hard to play live, because when we’re writing the set list we fall into playing the album in order, and we need to break ourselves of that. On the next tour we’ll be playing three new songs, one from a one-sided 7”. The 7” will be that song and a cover—we’re actually self-releasing it. We’ll be doing three new songs, two from the 7” and a bunch from the album.

So give me a spoiler. What’s the cover?

J-It isn’t decided yet. It’s probably going to be a death metal song. We’re a hardcore punk band but we didn’t want to do a punk song because it’s too easy. We usually do Discharge covers but we wanted to challenge ourselves more, do something out of our comfort zone. We’ve jammed on some death metal before and it’s a good mix—our style with that style. It will probably be an 80’s death metal song.

I need to call your brother in a minute to ask about lyrics and such. You don’t have any say in that, do you?

J- No my brother handles most of the lyrics. Our other guitarist wrote I think two of the songs on the album. Tony will send me the lyrics to look over, but honestly I mostly just look them over and say ‘yeah this works.’ He’s a very particular writer. He won’t show anyone lyrics until they’re done, so by the time I’ve seen them he’s rewritten them a bunch of times. We do go into a project with some idea of what it’s about.

Our EP is basically a concept EP about our views on religion and how we think it affects us. That has continued onto the album with a few other themes thrown in. For example three of us own Pit Bulls, so we wrote a song about that. There’s a song about the institutions of schools.

But the ethos behind Masakari is decided. That’s interesting to me because it’s usually a hardcore thing and it seems pretty recent that metal bands are taking this… not political, but sort of more moral standpoint and projecting that through the music. Is everyone in Masakari involved in that decision, or do you and your brother decide the ethic and everyone else says OK, we’ll play that?

J-We’re all part of it together. We try to stay away from straight politics just because what hasn’t been said in a punk song about fuck the government blah blah blah. We do have one quasi-political song but you hit the nail on the head that it really is a more moral view, a more personal view on how we think things affect us. We worked all of that political stuff out of our systems in our previous bands—we’re pretty apathetic to the government. We’d rather write something that people will read and connect to and say ‘yeah I feel that way too,’ and connect with as opposed to ‘I also believe that.’

What I’ve always loved about punk music is the lyrics. I feel like it’s about the music with metal and the lyrics with punk. We mix both. I’m surprised that it’s gone over so well with the metalheads. We’ve gotten a lot of praise and write ups in metal mags and popular blogs. I didn’t expect this kind of support from the metal community. I didn’t think that we could cross over into both genres and not change our style.

That’s one of the things about your band for me. When I grew up I was in the Toledo hardcore scene—which is now completely dead. It’s such a tragedy.

J-That’s what I hear from my friends in Toledo and Bowling Green.

Yeah. In college I was part of the really small western Michigan metal scene and your band hits both spots for me. It’s multifaceted.

J- It made me really nervous because I’ve tried to mix the punk and metal thing before and it hasn’t gone over so well. The metalheads would say it’s too punk, the hardcore kids would say it’s too metal. A few of our friends right at the start told us ‘yeah, you guys are such a metal band.’ We’ve always thought of ourselves as a punk band. We were nervous the same thing would happen again. But people haven’t really worried about genre with us, which is a good thing. I obviously think genres have their place, but people rely on them and that discussion too much. It’s a shame.

That’s a big problem in the metal community and it has been for a long time but it’s sort of hitting its zenith right now. Everyone’s debating what is or isn’t whatever so much that nobody’s listening to anything.

J-Like doom, sludge grime. Is nobody saying that these bands all kind of sound the same? It’s one thing to use genre to describe something but people are using genre to decide whether or not they’re even going to listen to something. Even genres I’m not fond of have bands that I like, and I like music all across the board.

I feel the same way. Extreme music to me is like—if it has drums and a loud guitar, I’m probably going to listen to it, so why are we splitting and quartering hairs?

J-It doesn’t bother me at all, but it makes me laugh: there is this online blog that reviews a… certain style of music, and he wrote an entire review that was just him explaining why he would not review The Prophet Feeds. It’s probably better than him actually reviewing it. It really illustrated to me that we’re sitting in a different community than we used to. While I’ve always liked metal music I’ve always come at it from the punk perspective—I’ve never been involved in the metal community. It’s an interesting transition, no, not transition; addition. It’s an interesting addition to our community. Rather than moving from one scene to another we are encompassing both in our crowd or our fanbase if you will. It’s only going to make our shows more fun.

-

Listen to Masakari on
MYSPACE
and
BANDCAMP

I will be seeing them at Forward Ohio, and will release my second interview with Joe's brother before then!

Interview: Battlecross

2011-02-03T13:45:00.000-08:00

Interview – Hiran and Tony, guitarists from Battlecross

Battlecross was the first band I ever bought a demo out of the trunk of a car from. It was 2006 outside of a Trivium show. They came with a recommendation from my hetero lifemate d00shc00gr. That was when I knew the man had taste.

Now, four years later, that band has self-released a debut containing songs from that demo that still kick like mules but sound very different. They are a talented and amazing band whose merits I have already sung over at NoCleanSinging[http://www.nocleansinging.com/2011/01/28/think-local-sound-global-battlecross/], but now it’s time to get in depth with the band and the process of them re-creating their debut, Push, Pull, Destroy.

While you read the interview please listen to Battlecross’s re-recorded songs:

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Overall how are things in the Battlecross campground?

H- Everything’s really good, man. Right now we’re trying to play out a lot more. We have a re-recording happening of the original album we put out—Push, Pull, Destroy. You’ve heard the three tracks we already re-recorded with our new vocalist. We’re gearing up to re-release that with our current vocalist.

Let’s talk about the new vocalist. Online it says his name is… Gumby?

T-His name is Kyle, but his nickname is Gumby. He’s had the nickname since High School.

I assume, but I need to make sure… He’s not made of green clay and he doesn’t jump in and out of books… right?

H- That’s still up for debate.

[laughs]

How’d he get the nickname?

H- The guys on his basketball team would make fun of him because he’s really skinny.

T- And tall.

H- Yeah, and tall. Skinny, lanky and tall.

T- The name just kinda stuck with him.

I’ve seen you guys a few times, so I’m wondering if I’ve seen him. How long have you been with Gumby?

H- He joined the band last summer and before then he did a couple fill-in shows for us early last year.

I saw you guys open for The Planetary Brutality tour with Dying Fetus and The Faceless, was he at that show?

H- That was at Blondie’s. That was our old vocalist.

That’s what I thought, but I had to make sure. So how did you find Gumby? Having listened to the new tracks and the old version of the record—not to harsh on Marshall if he reads this—Gumby adds a lot of range and meat to the sound.

H- For sure. WE found him because he sings for a band in Flint called I Decay, who have been around for at least five years. We got hooked up through our managers who also manage them—so we’re like brother bands.

I haven’t heard I Decay in like two years. I didn’t put that together—I’m being a bad journalist right now. Is he still with them?

H-He’s still with them. They haven’t been so active recently—they’ve been through a lot of member changes. They’re going to release this recording that they did this past summer. Expect to see that in the next few months, but from what he tells us it’s just that the band is not too active right now. He is not putting it to rest, he still does shows with them, but his main focus is with us.

So he lives in Flint. Does that make it difficult to rehearse or are you one of these new age bands where the ‘band’ will rehearse and then send the singer a tape and he practices separately, and you just hope it meshes live?

H- It’s a combination of that. Right now we all practice together three times a week, but Gumby is there on Fridays, just so we know that we’re tight so when he comes in everything is where it should be at.

T- It depends on the singer’s style. Sometimes if it’s just a rehearsal he doesn’t have to be there, but it’s important that he’s practicing on his own and keeping up with it.

H- Right, and he does practice to the album itself. He listens to it and will go over it. Obviously he is practicing on his own time.

Let’s talk about "Push, Pull, Destroy. Right now I’m tentatively calling myself a fan—I want to hear how the new one sounds. Is it going to be completely re-recorded or just re-mastered with new vocal tracks?

H- It’s new vocals with Gumby, but also completely re-mixed and re-mastered.

T- It will sound a lot better.

I think the first time I heard you was four years ago or so, and some of those songs are on the album. Is Push, Pull, Destroy the culmination of four years of straight work in Battlecross?

H- Yeah. Well this lineup started coming together in 2007. Tony had been with some former members. At that time it was a four-piece and sounded quite different. After that we got Mike on the drums, Marshall singing, and had a different bass player. The songwriting process for us is very slow, just because we’re very particular about parts and sometimes we will jam on a part and come back to it much later to change it. Sometimes not. “Leech” is one of the songs that has been around for a while and stayed the same, but some of the other songs have slowly been molded into what we want. It was a matter of getting the time, the money and so forth. Like you said some of these songs are very old, but they’ve been changing and accumulating until we finally hit ten and then it was like we’ve got to make and album, get these recorded, put something out there.’

T- This was literally years in the making

I think you can hear that. I heard it right away. When I first heard “Leech,” it must have been 2006. In 2006 I got it on a demo from my best friend [d00shc00gr], it had “Leech,” another song I don’t recall, and “Breaking You” on it. Do you remember that demo?

H- Yep!

T- Yes.

I listened to that demo and thought ‘ah! This is really something,’ but at the same time… That same friend has a saying about Slayer. He says ‘it’s the best straight line you’ll ever see drawn.’ It’s really powerful but not so deep. It’s just the one thing, and I thought that about Battlecross. Now, I listen to the album and maybe it’s the bass, or the guitar interplay, but it’s a deeper sound and it’s more technical. Was that a conscious decision or just the result of everyone coming together?

H- Are you referring to those three songs versus the rest or those three songs then and now?

-Then and now.

H-A lot of it has to do with our newest bass player. At that time we were jamming with a guy named Mike Heugel. Still talk to him. Great guy. He left the band and then Don Slater joined, and Don is the best bassist I have ever seen in metal. He really added another dimension. In the studio we could really hear what he was doing which added a lot. Since the old demos we’ve added a few fills and things—we try to keep in the same, but we keep our freedom to change.

T- As far as the writing style, we want to write things that are fun to play but also challenging. We don’t set out to be the most showy, the most ‘oh look what I can do,’ just stuff that is different, unique and challenging in our eyes. As for solos—we like doing solos but we’re not going to use one in every song just because every song must have one. If the song needs one it can have it, and that’s our approach to writing. We just want something that catches our ear. It’s not write it in a day and then it’s over. The first draft is just something we build off.

So you guys are from Detroit. The Narrows.

H- We’re sort of scattered all around. The band formed in Canton and we practice in Warren but we’re based in Detroit.

But you’re trying to get out of Detroit.

H- Absolutely.

You and everyone else brother!

[laughs]

H- It’s not that we don’t like Detroit, it’s just that if you’re in a band and you want to do something you need to get out and tour and play shows elsewhere. Spread the word and play in front of as many people as possible. That’s what we want to do. The next step is to get on a tour or set one up ourselves. It’s difficult to connect with people out of state, but that’s what we’re trying to do. We definitely want to get out.

What is your take on what it’s like to be an extreme metal band from Detroit, Michigan?

H- Detroit is overlooked sometimes. We do have The Black Dahlia Murder, but there’s not a whole lot being recognized. You can’t take that and say ‘we’re being overlooked! We’ll never go anywhere.’ You have to go out there and show people what you’re all about. You need to go out and say ‘this is what a Detroit band does.’ But it’s not like LA. There aren’t any connections. What is there in Detroit that’s ever really been recognized? Nothing.

Unless you’re an Electronica band.

[laughs]

H- Well if you want to incorporate that! But this isn’t exactly the land of opportunity. You get what you put in… I’m not sure what the saying really is. You just have to keep going and it might not be what someone else has, but… you can keep going.

Detroit’s become sort of this signifier of urban decay recently, especially post auto industry. Does that have an effect on the music?

H- I think you’re on to something. Definitely the environment around us has an impact. Not necessarily the auto industry, but related things. This has not been a fun summer day. You see what else is out there, these other bands getting signed and know you could do the same thing. It makes you push harder. You want to show what Detroit is about—we get this reputation as such a horrible city, but something good does come out of here. We’re going to show you that good does come out of here, it’s not just this horrible place you see in the media… It’s not that this is some pretty place where it’s fine and dandy with no crime. Obviously it’s not, but… In a way it makes you want to… I’m not sure how to put it.

T-When people just ignore you for no reason it makes you want the attention more. It makes you say ‘come on, I can do this!’ Metal is just like that in general. There’s something about the bands and the kids that listen to it that makes you somewhat of an outcast. Detroit is kind of the outcast of the United States in some ways. It makes us say fuck you; we’re going to still do our thing.

H- I’m proud to say we’re from Detroit

Thank you for saying that.

H- No matter what anybody thinks.

So what about the Michigan scene in general? You’re not alone in your quest to say ‘fuck you, we’re from Detroit; fuck you we’re from Michigan.’ I’ve spoken with a band called Dagon from Lansing who I think sound like you at times. I know you’ve run in the same circles as the Lansing scene.

H- Absolutely. Dagon is awesome. Actually the studio we recorded Push, Pull, Destroy at was Random Awesome Studios, which is where Dagon recorded their album [Terraphobic]. We heard about it from them, when we heard their recording. We recorded with Josh Schroeder.

T- Michigan as a whole, there are a lot of great metal bands, I could think of a dozen, but it’s not common to hear that anyone can get very far. They last a couple years and then what happened? Only a handful stick around.

H- It’s also not just Michigan as a whole. Like you said there is a distinct Lansing scene, a Detroit scene, a Traverse City scene. It’s kind of spread out in that sense but we all stick together. Who else will back you up? You have to; you need these other bands for support to tour and book shows. I’m all about the local scene—I believe in that. I try to go to shows and support the bands we play with.

T- We’re all about that. We’re about to go see our buddy’s band after this.

What’s the band?

T- They’re called Kaleima. They’ve been around for a while. They just got a new singer and guitar player. Josh is a really good friend of ours.

H- They used to be a two piece.

Rare to see a two piece in metal. Is there anyone else you want to shout out? Now’s your chance!

H- We’re just proud of the Michigan metal scene in general. Genocya. Bury the Silence. There’s so many bands.

T- We want to shout out the people that support us. Our fans who come to our shows and buy our shirts. People like you that just take an interest and try to support us.

H- We’re so appreciative of that. We have a guy called Dennis Adams who started a street team page. When we see that we’re so appreciative because people take notice of what we’re doing. People wanting to see you succeed is the greatest thing you could ask for.

Thank you guys. I got a Corona in my hand and I will drink to that.

H&T- Cheers brother.

The thing to me was, I felt since I started going to concerts that I have this little private Sweden in my backyard, with all these great bands from Michigan and Ohio that nobody else is listening to. I’m not greedy. I don’t want to be one of those little black metal kids in my room.

[laughs]

H- There’s nothing wrong with black metal.

I love black metal. I just saw Watain. I just want to spread the love is all.

H- Absolutely. We know some Ohio bands as well. Woe of Tyrants is great, I’m not sure if you know them.

I saw them in Grand Rapids on the Metal As Art tour.

H- They’re great. There’s also a band that played Ogrefest, a great band from Ohio—Locusta.

Yep, Locusta from Columbus.

H- And do you know Hammerhorde?

Hammerhorde are from my home town. I’ve been seeing them in various bands since I was like fifteen.

H- Right on. They played Ogrefest as well, I think.

They did. I was there. I was that one asshole in the pit that kept moshing.

[laughs]

T- Awesome.

H- That’s fucking great.

Me and my two buddies, the only people with Ogrefest shirts from the previous year. We were the pit.

H- Right on dude.

Are you guys playing Ogrefest this year?

T- We’re not allowed to.

What?

H- No, no, It’s just that we haven’t been asked yet. Dave [guitarist from Lansing DM band Satyrasis and organizer/promoter of Ogrefest] hasn’t said anything.

T- I don’t know if Dave was joking or not, but after the last Ogrefest he came up to me and said ‘I’ve had you guys three years in a row and I can’t ask you back for a fourth,’ and I was like ‘really? Aw man…’

[laughs]

H- Dave is just trying to change it up. I respect that. We love Dave. We love Satyrasis, and we’d play Ogrefest again anytime. I’ll be there this year.

See you guys there. So when does the re-release of Push, Pull, Destroy come out?

H- We’re not sure yet. We’re trying to negotiate with a label to put it out for us instead of just releasing it ourselves.

T- To reach a broader audience.

H- Yeah. I can’t really tell you who it’s going to be, but I can say we are in negotiations with someone. We don’t know if it will work out. Nothing is confirmed.

Have you considered doing the internet approach, like a BandCamp release? There is a one-man-band from Ohio called Cloudkicker—djent band—he’s done only BandCamp releases and is getting a lot of critical acclaim. What about the no label needed approach?

T- That is actually what we were doing originally.

H- All along we’ve been throwing a line out there to see who would bite, All along in the back of our minds has been the idea that this is all on us, no matter what we do, whether we have distribution or not, we sort of stand alone. It definitely started on that road but now that we know we could get some help it’s worth looking into—although I can’t say we will take that road for sure. I definitely think what you’re saying could be the wave of the future. Who knows?

Satan only knows.

Listen to Battlecross on
MYSPACE
and
REVERBNATION
Friend them on
FACEBOOK

Battlecross Article at No Clean Singing

2011-01-28T13:39:00.000-08:00

So the interview should be up on Sunday or Monday. In the mean time, check what I wrote about this wonderful band over at NoCleanSinging via the link HERE.

Summary: Battlecross is excellent.

New Logo

2011-01-25T16:54:00.000-08:00

This has been some time coming.

You will notice that the title is no longer a hideous spawn of blogger--that header has been pierced and laid to rest.

In its place now stands a lovely logo courtesy of the lovely and talented Erichka Ilich, a friend from some years back whom i met on the set of a movie I wrote that was never actually made, so sad.

I mention this because we discovered the movie through a fanzine, and that is precisely what this blog really is--a fanzine. That legacy is well preserved in the logo.

The logo also directly reminds me of the logos for three of my all-time favorite bands: Opeth, Death and The Misfits. It truly feels home made. A round of applause for Erichka, everyone.

Now, in the coming weeks I have some treats for you which I will not disclose, but my next post shall be an interview with Detroit metal stalwarts Battlecross, so expect that coming down the pike. I will also create an official facebook group.

It is the throat of winter, bloodthirsty brothers and scandalous sisters, keep kvlt, stay kold.

-Joseph

Interview - King

2011-01-12T08:44:00.000-08:00

Interview with David Gunn, vocalist of King

I let the tape on this interview run too long. At the end of the interview I could hear myself put the phone down, exhale, and shiver. This is by far the most intense interview I have ever had the pleasure of doing. But that should just be expected when talking about the most intense local band I have ever seen—Flint’s King.

King is not a band you can just listen to—you need to move. Either because the music compels you or because if you don’t one of their numerous incredibly loyal fans will dance into your face. While King blends elements of hardcore, groove and death metal, I hesitate to call them deathcore. I hesitate to call them anything at all other than the sound of being hit by a bulldozer. Subtlety is not the point, but neither is pure brutality. The point is honesty. Besides being fun to listen to, King deal with the very real issues of everyday life for many people in this part of the country. Death metal stopped scaring me—and being honest with me a long time ago.

I have absolute faith that King vocalist David Gunn will never lie to me, and will never cease to terrify me—his charisma burns, and his live mantra is “harder than this, much harder than this!”

You can see the years on David’s face. In the wrinkles on his forehead and in his scars, which I am sure are from on and off the stage. His live performance is positively vicious in a very real very dangerous way. I am not necessarily advocating what David, King, or their fans do but, to quote the film Alien, ‘I admire its purity.’ To those who would dare see King unprepared—and I do recommend you see King as soon and as often as you can—I quote that film again: ‘I can’t lie to you about your chances, but you have my sympathies.’

-

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So I’ve been waiting to talk to you guys since I saw you guys at Dirtfest 2009. In terms of me seeing a live band period that was one of the most intense things I’ve ever seen. To come from a band that’s still unsigned, still local that’s really impressive. What do you think about that gig and what you do live?

D-A big part of what we do has to do with the crowd. It’s a big issue for us that people are there—it’s not about how many it’s about who, and the reason they’re there. I mean people are standing there with their arms crossed. Little girls are there texting on their cell phones. It puts a damper on what we do, but we’re there for people that want to see us, that follow us and are really into what we’re doing.
Like you said, we’re an independent or unsigned act. We’re not that easy to find or to track down so if you’re there then you’re there for a reason. So it’s up to the crowd how things turn out. With that show in particular was one of the bigger ones we’ve played, there were a couple thousand people. We always try to play the best we can play when we’re in or around home. Obviously we were representing our home so anyone who comes in from outside will know ‘this is what we do here.’ It was right down the road from Flint.

The show is important to us regardless of if we have a label behind us or not, but if we had money that was not just our own there would be a lot more of a show. I believe that the show is the most important thing—the show is art, it’s the visual and the audio put together, and it’s the way that we act onstage and offstage, which is the songs. If we would tour, play 360 days a year, the crowds would be thirty people but we want you go get the same show even if it’s ten people or a thousand. It’s the same show if it’s three people in Georgia. Tour a weekend, eight months, it’s still just us and our instruments. You get it?

Yeah, I understand.

D- Does that answer the question?

That was a fantastic answer I’m just sort of reeling back through… you touched on a lot of things that I was curious about. I knew from seeing you that you guys have a very intimate relationship with where you’re from, which is Flint, Michigan. How does where you’re from affect your music?

D- This is the musical embodiment of the only thing that matters to us. There is no city in this nation like Flint—you can turn on CNN and see that. I don’t care what anyone says. Look at our numbers: we’ve had 64 murders this year and less than 100 thousand people. There’s less than one cop per thousand people that live here. Statistically this is one of the worst places to live on this earth. That’s where a lot of the violence comes from. It’s not tongue-in-cheek. It’s not me doing some medical terminology from a dictionary. I’m not putting together these fictitious tales these other bands are. It’s real. Every word is real. There’s not a lie in there.

I don’t know why the Midwest isn’t on the map for that. We are in hell. Right now Gary Indiana is one of the worst cities in this nation. Flint and Detroit are always ranked in the top three for worst cities to live in, right next to Jersey.

Personally, music is just a thing that us four friends do. Flint is one of the reasons the music sounds the way it does. Like I said there’s no fairy tales. It’s real. We do what we want. I don’t see any other band out doing it like this. I think that’s part of the reason we’re unsigned. We had a deal that ended because of that.

This town is everything to us. It’s the reason we are who we are. Most of my friends are dead or in prison, or on probation. That’s how life is—we just happen to play music. There’s a thin line that you draw between the artistic side and the real side. That’s what people don’t see when they come to these shows or they go online—and I’m not an online personality. They get online and try to categorize us into a friend group or… Anything you can type online doesn’t apply to us.

I’m not hating on anyone but we’re not that type of band. Don’t put us in a category. That’s not who we are. I think that’s where our reputation comes from. It’s where the bullshit that anyone talks comes from. People assume what we make can be compared to what these other bands are putting out. I’m not trying to hate on other bands—every band is good as long as they’re doing what they want to be doing, but I seldom see a band put the kind of effort that we’re putting into the music.

From what I’ve seen I agree, actually. I do see that there’s so much more effort coming from you guys where you’re onstage. There was none of this practiced anything. There was none of this synchronized bobbing up and down.

D- There are no practiced moves. We don’t stand there and nod our head until the breakdown and then command the crowd to ‘act like fools,’ and then when they act like fools threaten to stop playing. That’s what it looks like everyone else does. That’s what it looks like people in the audience do, too. They stand there pacing around with this tough look on their face until some type of odd rhythm or half-tempo or breakdown happens. They start doing karate moves or whatever it is that they do. If that’s what you do to express yourself… We believe do whatever you want to have fun, of course.

But, it seems to me most of the things I see are rehearsed. It’s not organic—it’s a synthetic way of expression. I don’t know why anyone would want to do that, and it’s the same with the bands. People who come to our shows act like that during every part of every song. They know every word of every song. They hit and kick each other from the beginning of the show to the end.

I think there are misconceptions that a lot of the underground music scene has, in the deathcore subgenre or what have you that has developed. They think they are very cool. They like to make fun of people who push-mosh, but we’re all in the heavy scene together. You don’t want to be pushed, I understand that, but truthfully… It’s very chic to make fun of these other heavy bands like Godsmack or Disturbed, nu-metal, but the guys at their shows are bigger. They hit much harder. They walk away much bloodier than people at these shows or bands we’ve played with—Suicide Silence, Whitechapel, any of these death metal or deathcore bands. Before you make fun of other people doing what they will to enjoy themselves at a show realize that you would not go to that show and say… well you know… to them. I’ve seen the people that attend these nu-metal shows and these deathcore shows. A Suicide Silence fan is not going to say what he would say on a blog to a Pantera fan’s face.

It shouldn’t be that way. I don’t know why everyone can’t get together and do their own thing. It becomes this generational thing. If they’d look into it deeper they would see that their heroes—these Suicide Silence guys, and I can speak for After the Burial who are friends of ours—the heroes of their heroes are the guys from Pantera or Slipknot, bands that came out in the 90’s. That was the generation they grew up in. They’re showing praise to these people and putting down antics inspired by their heroes. I don’t know why they’re running in circles like that.

It’s hypocritical to you?

D- It’s ignorant. Not only do they not do the research to understand what’s going on, but they associate. What they associate us with makes me very angry. Someone brought to my attention online somewhere—I don’t know where because I don’t get online. People show me these things. Someone online was criticizing our new song, “Dragging Knives,” because someone thought I was using Emmure-type vocals in the song. I don’t even know who Emmure is! We are inspired by bands that we grew up with in the 90’s—obviously. You can be inspired by whatever band you grew up with in your generation—you’re probably a little bit younger than me, I’m turning 25 in a few weeks [he’s right-JS]. I was inspired by my favorite bands and this is the result. We’re not putting together any kind of synthetically enforced sound. This is our sound, and this is the way we do things. I don’t even have to listen to Emmure to know what they sound like and to know that they have nothing to do with me. That Emmure guy, he got his vocals from something in the past that inspired him. Maybe my voice does sound like him—the point is people aren’t doing their homework. It makes me wonder how much they’re really into the music.

Valid criticism.

D- It’s endless.

[laughs]

D- I don’t know why we’re prone to it, but it seems like we are.

In my experience the bands that seem to get the most ‘hate’ seem to be the bands that have a really dedicated core fanbase. It has something to do with people wanting to exclude, and hating the bands that don’t. You guys cross boundaries. Even in the pit you literally cross boundaries, but you also reach out to everyone at the same time.

D- Music doesn’t see a color or a race. It doesn’t see. Music is for everyone, and we want to make it for everyone that wants it, that likes it. There are people that wear our shirts every day; they are a part of the band and the music. They don’t just listen to it. You download the music, listen to it on your computer, buy a tee shirt online, take a myspace picture with it and delete it the next day. On to the next thing. It’s not flavor of the week. It’s not digestible. This new-age technology brought on a lot of non-loyal fans that everyone is obsessed with. We have real band loyalty. They like the music because they like it. We’ve put on shows with hundreds of people wearing our tee shirts, but we just put our first tee shirts online. They get them from us. They come see us, talk to us. We have real relationships with them which a lot of other bands don’t do because they’re too cool. We make music for people, not just kids aged 18-21.

But still people hate on us. I just don’t get it—you know where we’re going to be. You know where I’m going to be. It’s posted online! A lot of people get violent online—‘come here and fight me! Come here and fight me!’ Well we’re coming there. To play a show. It will be at this place on this date at this time. It’s posted online. Obviously we don’t want any problems, but if you want to see us show up. They never show up. We’ve been doing this for a while and we’ve got the group to prove it. I don’t know why people think they can just hop online and pick a physical challenge with us when we are the most violent band I have ever seen. If anyone knows anyone more violent then they need to tell me, because I don’t know who they are. It’s not a gig, or an act. I’ve busted my own face open multiple times. What do you think I’ll do to your face? I don’t know how else to put it.

I think that was very well put, personally. And I agree—you are the most violent band I’ve ever seen. Do you guys, as King, have any goals?

D- We just want to reach everyone. We don’t have a monetary goal. A lot of bands do it for the cash, or the deal. We don’t care about any of those things, but it just so happens that reaching people makes a certain level of popularity. We just want people to enjoy what we’re doing for whatever reason. Not everyone enjoys it for the same reason on the same levels or even to the same degree. We just want people to be able to make that decision. What we want isn’t abstract. It’s not ‘get signed, tour.’ Of course we would welcome a deal if one were sweet. We would tour if it was right. But that’s not really us. WE only make moves when our heart is in it. There is no touring just for the sake of touring. We’ve been a band for two-and-a-half years and never done a big tour. That’s not the best resume for a band to have but we’re not going on one of these fruitless expeditions across the nation. Our goal is simply to reach out, to let people know who we are. Not for the sake of having people talk about us. We aren’t that sort of band.

My last question, then, is: If you could say anything to anyone who reads this who has not heard of King, what would it be?

D- I don’t know. I’d rather listen to what everyone else reading it has to say after reading it. I don’t know what else to say except if you’re reading this then obviously you’re interested in us or what have you. We’re glad to accommodate you in any way that you see fit for a band to do so. You don’t have to worry about us coming out with some bullshit or letting anyone down. We’re heavy every time. But really, I’m more interested in what they have to say.

Thank you. See you guys on Wednesday. Good luck.

D- Hey, did I answer all of your questions well enough?

Absolutely. This is one of the best interviews I’ve ever had. All those answers were great.

D- Sorry to take up all your time it’s just… Sometimes it’s not one-word answers, you know?

If everyone thought about what they were doing as much as you just did, as much as you just proved to me that you think-

D- We would be blessed. There wouldn’t be all this pointless conversation and dilution of the music.

That’s why I’m interviewing you. That’s why I sought you out. I knew if I covered King I’d be able to see something I could care about.
-
Follow KING on
Myspace
And
Facebook

End of the Year Lists

2011-01-06T11:47:00.000-08:00

Happy new year from the midwest! It's now officially 2011, less than two years until the Kali Yuga of 2012. you know what that means...

YEAR END LISTS!

I have, fortunately, already posted mine at No Clean Singing. they are below:

The most listenable metal records of 2010.

The most artistic metal records of 2010.

the most metal not-metal records of 2010.

Read away.

Also, because it's a new year here's a little taste of what's to come: I am transcribing an interview with perhaps the most violent band on the face of the earth, as well as performing interviews and running album previews with some of the best extreme metal in Michigan. 2011 will be a fine year... to die.

Show Report: "Lawless Darkness North America Tour"

2010-12-13T16:03:00.000-08:00

Show Report – Black Anvil, Goatwhore, Watain – live at Peabody’s in Cleveland, OH Dec 1. 2010

9:30 PM, on a Wednesday

As Opeth once said, the throat of winter was upon me as I drove to Cleveland to spend the evening with my good comrade MetalDetector and see Watain. I was feeling down, for two reasons. First, the wisps of white were thrashing across the pavement and it was frigid outside—soon it would be Black Metal weather and my Seasonal Affected Disorder would kick into full gear (like now).

Once I got to his place, we got ourselves good and prepped with the proper chemical component and made our way to Peabody’s while listening to the Ghost record the blogs are all a-twitter over (yeah, it’s good).

Peabody’s is the metal club in Cleveland and I’ve known many a major tour to pass through the joint. This was my first time. The place seems pretty average—the sound was consistently too bass-heavy and the décor is pretty somnambulant. Certainly I enjoy Headliner’s and Harpo’s more for a venue of this relative size, but I have no actual complaints.

Cleveland crowds do not mosh, according to MetalDetector, which upset me because I would call all three acts very pit-friendly. Regardless, the show was decently attended, which gave me an odd feeling. I realized than that Waitain’s kvlt has officially been revoked—they have broken above ground. When I received Sworn to the Dark from d00shc00gar he bought it from the merch table at a Nominon show—nobody we knew had ever heard of Watain. Two years later they were in a sizeable club with a handful of top-10 list positions under their arms and a few women in the crowd (the true mark of a successful metal band in the Midwest). The last band to do that to me was Mastodon—I had to see if Watain could school the Georgia boys onstage.

First up was NYC Black/death/thrash/punk newcomers Black Anvil. Their debut, Time Insults the Mind, was a good slice of brisk blackened thrash that emphasized groove—good, that’s how I like my black thrash. I hear good things about their new record, Triumvirate. I assume most of the set list was culled from that record because I only recognized a few songs. Paul Delaney is adept at keeping his playing tight while his bass is swinging way down low and his feet are stomping over massive square footage—all that and he’s the main vocalist as well. I felt Black Anvil deserved more attention from the crowd—hopefully the tour will net them some new fans.

Next was my second Goatwhore set in a year, this one much less entertaining than their stint at Headliner’s with The Black Dahlia Murder due to a complete lack of moshing even during closer ‘Apocalyptic Havok.’ Live they sound a great deal like on record; the music has a conveying quality to it that hearkens back to early Dismember at times (death-groove by way of Judas Priest worship). They just demand that fits pump and hair fly.

I could go on but around then the scent got distracting. I first thought it was raw fish, but then I remembered stories on forums and blogs from Watain’s last show. I suppose this is the most TRVE black metal show I’ve ever been to—I’ve never before seen a band take the stage coated in animal blood.

First, they set the stage—and oh boy what a stage! Below are two videos from the show, one documenting their entrance and opening track ‘Malfeitor.’

Observe the candles, banners, smoke machine, and sheep skulls. The ambiance was absolutely fantastic, but never detracted from the one obvious truth of the night—Watain are first and foremost a live band. The set list was culled almost completely from their last two records, Sworn to the Dark and Lawless Darkness, which marked a transition in their music from textbook black metal jams into groovy, anthemic, hooky and occasionally epic songs. They are two records of self-consciously crowd pleasing songs and unlike some people I couldn’t be more pleased with that—Watain’s more hooky output is more malicious and evil-sounding than most ‘traditional’ black metal recorded outside of the black circle to these ears.

I dare you to watch this performance of ‘Sworn to the Dark’ and not get shivers up your spine:

This much is also obvious: Erik Danielsson, regardless of what he actually believes in terms of his Satanism, is a fantastic front man—as engaging and ambulatory as a Randy Blythe or Phil Anselmo, but with a much more palatable spiritual charisma instead of macho posturing. Indeed most of the ‘religious’ hoopla around Watain’s live show is thanks to him.

It also helps that he’s obviously a good looking man, a quality often lacking in metal in general even though people want attractive performers in their lives—men want other men to look up to and women want attractive men to lust after. That’s rock and roll, and there’s a bit of Elvis’ pelvis effect in Danielsson. If he took the time to develop a washboard six-pack I could see him selling cologne on national TV—‘don’t YOU want to be sworn… to the dark?’

After seeing the show and hearing the album, I have a hunch that Watain are well positioned to usurp the most-commercially-successful black metal crown from Cradle of Filth and Dimmu Borgir. Normally the thought of such a thing would make me nauseous, but the thought of tons of advertising dollars and corporate pressure being thrust upon Watain doesn’t in intimidate me simply because I feel like they are legitimately nuts, both for metal and for their oft-mentioned (but never expanded upon) satanic beliefs. Their conviction was palpable, particular during their penultimate song—my favorite—‘Stellarvore.’

What a song, right? During that number, while chanting the words, I stormed to the front of the crowd and was anointed with fresh (incredibly foul-smelling) animal blood by Danielsson. The scent followed me back to MetalDetector’s house, and into my work.

Watain was an incredibly engaging live act whose dark charm followed me on my two hour drive to my day gig the next morning. I look forward to seeing them again.

Interview: Skeletonwitch

2010-12-13T14:31:00.001-08:00

My Interview with Athens, OH's Skeletonwitch is not up at No Clean Singing.

read it HERE.

Cheers.

New post: Landmine Marathon Interview

2010-11-29T04:48:00.001-08:00

My recent interview with Landmine Marathon is now up at No Clean Singing.

You can read it HERE.

Cheers!
Joseph

Interview: HotChaCha

2010-11-26T07:47:00.000-08:00

I first saw HotChaCha randomly in the summer of 2010 at an outdoor gig on a balmy summer evening. I knew I was in for a treat when I saw a Sunn amp onstage.

They did not play metal, but they were more true to the abstract ethos of the genre than most contemporary metal bands today have ever been. Their music was unavoidable, all-encompassing, and LOUD. Their live performance was explosive.

Musically, HotChaCha gesture toward classic heavy-but-not-metal groups Pink Floyd and Joy Division. They cocooned me in warm psychedelic melodies before blasting me away with crumbling walls of ice-cold noise as pummeling-yet-danceable beats demanded that my body move of its own accord.

The members of HotChaCha, four talented and amazing young women, are indie in aesthetic but punk in charisma. Their shows are personal, confrontational, and cathartic. At any point in time one of them could launch into the audience in a flurry of violence and hair.

Frontwoman Jovana Batkovic, recalls both PJ Harvey and GG Allin, capable of both self-destructive flagellating and touching vulnerability at any given moment. A set highlight is when she joins the crowd during 'Traffic,' singing ‘kiss me if you can.’ Nobody ever does—and the song is stronger as a result.
After one show I knew this was a group members of the metal community could enjoy being exposed to.

I'd begin with their new EP, Fantastic Static, which out of all their recordings is the most energetic, and captures thier raw live energy the best.
-
The following interview was conducted after HotChaCha’s set at Woodchucks [which is the best venue to hear The Misfits on a Jukebox, ever] in Toledo, Ohio, on November 19, 2010.

M - My name is Mandy and I play guitar and keyboards… and bass sometimes.
H - I’m Heather, and I’m drunk, and I play bass.
R - I’m Roseana. I play drums.
And this is going to be interesting.
J – I’m Jovana and I sing, and I play the triangle and kazoo.*
[laughs]

So you guys don’t actually play metal. What would you call your music?
M – Progressive metal.
[laughs]
You guys aren’t Opeth. I’m sorry, you’re not.
M – Rager music.
H – Yeah, we just want to fucking rage.
M – We just like to have a good time and dance and shred.
H – And have a good time, fucking rage and break shit.
R – It’s like bipolar tourette’s music.

Let’s start away from music; let’s start with product. You guys have a new EP out called Fantastic Static. You made an interesting choice—it’s all reclaimed vinyl.
M – yes.
I approve—let’s talk about it.
M – We’re on a budget, as an indie band, so we got a bunch of records for free. We have an awesome friend [Shawn Knight] from a band called Child Bite who is an amazing screen printer and artist who designed the cover and printed over these recycled vinyls for us.
H –We got these sweet vinyls made at gotta groove records. They’re all different colors and each record is unique. People dig that shit.
R – They’re all very beautiful.
J – I like cats.
[laughs]

So you guys just filmed your first music video?
M – More like third.
Third? Ok, first one that I’ve seen [I can actually locate what appears to be five or six after digging more]. It’s really indie, really bare bones, which is interesting considering your music is very expansive—it has that womblike post-punk quality to it… over the metal-ness. So what prompted that decision?
M – There’s only one person who offers to do videos for us for free and we just do whatever he says and that was his idea.
How about a fucking name?
[laughs]
M – His fucking name is fucking Noel fucking Maitland. He just made a video for Wu Tang. He’s becoming a big deal now, and his still comes to Cleveland and wants to do videos with us, which is awesome. But it was his idea and we went with it because.
H – Because he’s Noel.
M – Because He’s Noel and we love him.
R – Amen.
J – I wore flannel. I still like cats.

Politics.
H – I’m an anarchist. I sewed an A on my jeans and I wear it near my crotch.
[laughs]
So on the website – and this might go only for Jovana. The website describes you guys as Serbian.
M – Mmm… Jovana is Serbian. I’m Lebanese.
H – I’m a gypsy from Slovakia
R – I’m Greek.
J – It was hard in the old country. I don’t want to talk about it.

The reason I ask is because you guys are tour dogs. You’ve played Toledo three times in the last year. You’ve been all over the Midwest. You’ve been to New York, Brooklyn. You guys seem to come from a migratory background. How does that inform the tour situation.
M – Inform… Can you expand?
Your ancestors traveled frequently. You travel frequently. What is it? Is it something in your blood or about the music scene in general? A lot of bands don’t get out much—they only play their hometown. I mean Immortal only plays what? Two shows a year?
M – First I want to say that as a band you have to travel or no one’s going to pay attention to you. You’re putting all this work in—you need to get out of your hometown. And I don’t know if it’s the ancestry, I think that more influences the music. We all grew up in very ethnic households.
H – Totally ethnic homes.
It influences the music?
M – Yes.
Talk about it influencing the music.
M – ‘Bukarest’ on Fantastic Static has a lot to do with it [full lyrics at end]. I grew up with Middle Eastern music. It’s very like… chaa naa bee bee… Gypsy music is-
H – Yeah, I grew up with Gypsy music.
R – Greek music is like Middle Eastern music. Belly dancing.
M – Sing us a little Greek song.
R – [sings in Greek.]
I know that song.
R – It’s very popular.
M – So it influences the music, but the traveling is.
R – We’re like Gypsies. We’re nomads.
H – We are like Gypsies.
M – We learned from bands that we’re friends with that are not from Cleveland. They get signed to bigger labels, and they’ve been to our town five times. We learned a lesson. ‘Dude we’ve got to travel.’
H – You just have to go. You’ve got to go.
M – It expands your fanbase.
R – I used to have a home.
[laughs]
M – Yeah, things are falling apart.

So you say it influences the lyrics. I have not had much of a chance to look over the lyric sheet—does Jovana write them?
J – I write all the lyrics.
Then I guess we can’t expand on this too much, but the lyrics are vague, almost impressionistic.
M – Jovana got her first degree in theater at Kent state. She’s very theatrical, very dramatic. Someone got a degree in theater, can you believe it?
[laughs]
H – Whoops!
It’s OK, mine’s English.
M – Same difference.
H – Same thing.
M – I think that influences it, theater degree--those weirdos.
H – And she speaks three languages, but we’re not letting her speak right now.
M – Because she doesn’t speak English that well.
H – When she drinks a lot.
Jovana drank a fucking lot tonight.
H – I would die.

The live performance. You guys don’t seem to give a fuck about the imaginary fourth wall between band and audience, which is interesting coming from a theater background. As a hardcore scene vet I respect that.
M – Thank you. Right now we’ve played at least 70 shows out of town in the past three months. We’ve been traveling nonstop. So it’s like you’re so comfortable with the songs that you’re so bored you need to make it interesting.
H – I don’t think it’s bored.
M – Not bored, but you’re playing a show you want to make it interesting for yourself.
R – I get angry now!
Brutal.
J – I’m just really cool to look at.
[laughs]

So it’s a metal blog. Blah. You guys seem to appeal to a particular sort of crowd, at least in Toledo. I think I’m the only headbanger here. What do you think about.. I mean there’s been posts about Iron Maiden on your website, I assume that’s Jovana.
H – I love Iron Maiden.
You love Iron Maiden? I love Iron Maiden. And you’re the bassist! My god, Steve Harris right?
H – Totally!
M – There are metalheads in the band. Unfortunately I have nothing to do with the metal-ness.
H – I totally have everything to do with the metal.
M – Yeah, Heather is the fucking metal.
H – Metal all the way. I even have the bandannas to prove it.
R – I have blood on my snare. I think that makes me metal, even though I don’t know about the fourth wall.
H - I met Metallica at Chris’s world records in Lakewood.
R – Weckords!
Wacken?
R – Dokken?
H – I grew up and that was my jam. That was it.

Do you want more headbangers at your show?
M – We want to rage just as much as metal dudes want to rage.
H – We want to crowd surf, and rage. We want to see blood.
M – I get so proud when I see blood on my guitar.
R – I want more blood on my snare.
H – Blood on our instruments and the soles of people’s shoes.
J – I cough up blood every day.

Well, maybe I can help you there. What is HotChaCha to you.
R – Family.
M – Problem Child.
H – Motely Crue. Motely Crue and girl in blue.
M – The best thing that has ever happened to me. I love my band mates and hope it never ends.
R – It’s what high school should have been.
J – I like you guys, but I like myself more.
If you could say anything to anyone who has not heard you, what do you want to say?
M – Ha ha. Stupid.
H – Boners.
R – it’s gonna be so awesome.

Thank you HotChaCha for a fucking blast of an interview! You can buy their shit and check their schedule out HERE.

-
‘Bukarest’ Lyrics:
He hung himself in Bukarest never said a word before he left with a somber look upon his face he let it all out from the window of his chest he saw his neighbor’s cow chew the dress the pretty wedding dress he once bought for her bez tebe nemam mira (Mary) and now he hangs in Bukarest lonelier than before he left with a smile upon his face he let it all out
-
All photographs by Kyle Lee Tate

*Jovana, who set up the interview, passed out beforehand. In this interview the part of Jovana was played by Sam Wandtke of Toledo Art-rock/pop institution Fangs Out who are likewise very good… but not metal.

Post at NCS - Hardcore Hypocisy

2010-11-22T17:24:00.000-08:00

I've just posted my second article over at No Clean Singing.

More love to Islander for supporting me.

Read it HERE.

Show Report: “to Catch a Predatour”

2010-11-15T17:32:00.000-08:00

The Contortionist, Gaza, The Red Chord, Terror, The Acacia Strain
at Headliner’s Toledo, Saturday, November 13, 2010

7:30 PM, on a Saturday...

I walked into Headliner’s and the place was packed. I’ve been coming here for local shows since I was 16 (2004) for now-deceased local favorites like The Uncertain 5—back then the turnout was always skeletal at best, except for big bands like CKY. The sight of the joint filled with hardcore kids still doesn’t quite sit right, even though I’ve seen some of the biggest and best shows of my life here. Admittedly, most of those shows were on the big stage.

Headliner’s has been getting big. Scratch that, Toledo has been getting big, probably because the scene at Harpo’s in Detroit (the next biggest metal venue nearby) has been getting sketchy with bad live sound and poser tours outnumbering the extreme, heavy stuff I so love. The stages at Headliner’s are more intimate, the security is nicer, and on the big stage kids climb up support beams and jump twenty or thirty feet into the crowd; safe? Fuck no. Exciting? Oh yeah.

The Contortionist, a prog-deathcore band, were already nearly done with their set. A shame, my buddy MetalDetector likes their new record. I spotted my best friend and trve kvlt broder d00shc00gr along with CoVocalist heading for the patio and tailed them.

D00shc00gr was unimpressed by The Contortionist, and nine times out of ten I trust him implicitly, so we stayed outside and waited for Salt Lake City’s Gaza to start. Neither d00shc00gr nor CoVocalist had ever heard Gaza before. Apparently that can be said for 99% of Toledo.

Full disclosure: I came for Gaza. Their latest record He Is Never Coming Back was one of my favorites of ’09, but I never would have known it existed were it not for crustcake.com. They play a mix of metalcore and grindcore that is light on the breakdowns and heavy on groove. They could almost sound like Converge but with more sludge in the mix and less misogyny.

Gaza remind me of a basement band on record—the sound reeks of spilled beer, broken teeth, and loud cheap amplification (monto benne). Their live show followed suit. Every member of the band is charismatic with equal parts mobility and lethality. Frontman Jon is a beast with a sense of intimacy—he leapt into the audience and behind the barricades. At one point he hung from the rafters (like my local heroes once did when being self-destructive was actually ‘cool’) before hanging himself by stringing the mic through said rafters… and kept singing.

He said Toledo was one of the five best crowds they had. A fucking travesty. The pit was barren but for CoVocalist and myself. Only four men in the front, one girl and I knew the words, and we screamed along every god forsaken lyric we know. Their reception was cold, but they were my favorite.

D00shc00gr appeared after the set smiling and wearing a Gaza tee shirt. Good. Very good.

Next up was groovy southern-fried deathcore stalwarts The Red Chord. Historically all of their records but their most recent, Fed Though the Teeth Machine (what a name!) have been hit-or-miss with me. I realize now this is because they have never had the right producer to bottle their live lightening, because they slay live. Hint: next time, get Scott Hull, boys. He will set you up right.

They played a crowd-pleasing set with rabid pit support and crowd surfing. CoVocalist brought out his hardcore dancing before they got a wall-of-death during set closer ‘Antman.’

The Red Chord solidified themselves as not only my pick for most favorite brutal deathcore band currently making music, but band with the best tee-shirt designs. My personal favorite had stuffed animals being fed into meat grinders and liquefied into rainbows—a lovely bit of autoethnographic middle-fingering to the current hello-kitty-meet-suicide-silence Hot Topic Fashionistas.

Next was Terror, a current hardcore staple. They are perhaps most famous for their outspoken and occasionally-goofy frontman Scott Vogel, whose stage banter is immortalized at vogelisms.com.

Musically they play Hatebreed-style metallic hardcore based on catchy choruses and breakdowns. Essentially this is ringtone hardcore aimed at bros and scene girls with snakebites in Despised Icon jerseys… in other words, not my people.

Still, they put on a good show with a lively hardcore dancing pit and an obscene amount of stagedives. Hell, even I stagedove once or twice and had a bang-up time. Having seen Hatebreed three times, I can safely say Terror is the superior band, but they’re no Gallows or Cruel Hand

Then The Acacia Strain took the stage and my night spiraled into oblivion because this band has to have the most absurdly obnoxious fans I can think of. The hardcore dancing exceeded entertaining and quickly became downright dangerous as fights broke out left and right. The amount of anti-drinking/smoking/having fun vitriol spewed onstage completely overpowered the repetitive and overproduced deathchore. And seriously, TURN DOWN THE FUCKING DRUM TRIGGERS. SOME OF US WANT TO HEAR THE NOTES… OH WAIT, THERE ARE ONLY THREE OF THEM OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN!!

Some websites and magazines I respect gave decent reviews to The Acacia Strain’s new record Wormwood, but after this I am convinced it’s studio tinkering making a mediocre band sound good.

D00shc00gr and I, being vets of our respective local basement hardcore scenes were less than amused and would had left after three songs had we not lost CoVocalist in the sea of quivering idiot flesh (get it? If you do, brownie points).

Overall a great show murdered by a horrible headliner.

I Return

2010-11-15T17:20:00.001-08:00

After an extended hiatus I return to bring the midwestern metal.

First and foremost I'[m pleased to announce a partnership with Islander at one of my absolute favorite blogs, NoCleanSinging. I will be posting there under nom de plume BadWolf.

My first post is up there about one of my favorite local(ish)bands, Dagon.

You can read the article HERE.

Stay coming, people, there is more metal on the way.

Woman is Metal as FUCK!

2010-03-03T15:54:00.000-08:00

I almost feel bad engaging with a second debate with Reign in Blonde, but sometimes I read something that just makes my blood boil.

Today it was that blog’s resident third wheel, Angela Gossowski firing a salvo at her namesake Arch Enemy frontwoman Angela Gossow, who recently spoke out against Revolver’s annual Hottest chicks In Metal issue.

While I respect the devil’s advocate position (fuck, I live it) I found her entire article disingenuous and parts of her argument ridiculous.

First, confessional: I consider myself a non-Marxist Feminist (no loyalty to particular theorists or waves) on the inside, even though I am a firm believer in Bob Marley’s adage that ‘isms breed schisms. I also confess that I have written for Metalsucks.net, a website that still gets major traffic for posting NSFW pictures of Kristen Randall (who I will return to later...) but that’s not me. Regardless, I am still male, and prone to the same sexual desires and frustrations that most men are. I do not want that in my music culture, especially when the art itself often lacks that sexuality.

Why promote sex in music that (almost) always lacks it? Especially today, metal is about violence, oppression, rebellion, and catharsis. Why shouldn’t our subculture depict women in a manner befitting this fact?

There’s the rub: subculture.

See, as a metalhead, I see myself as part of a lifestyle, a culture, a community, and I like to show my pride—I rock my band tee shirts, display my piercings, and love to blast my blast beats at high volume with the windows of my little gray civic allllll the way down. I show my pride. The issue with pride is that it’s great for the individual, but bad for the community when the community takes part in shit like the HCiM issue.

An illustration: do I want to walk into a bookstore wearing my Nachtmystium tee when three feet away on the magazine rack Revolver is broadcasting the idea that my subculture (and its various sub-susbcultures) likes scantily clad images of objectified women with its riffage. Personally? Fuck no. To everyone in that bookstore who takes a second to look at me, the first impression of me, and by extension all metalheads is commercialized, hypersexualized, and cheauvenistic.

Commercialized? Hypersexualized? Cheauvinistic? Sounds like consumerism to me, and isms breed schisms…

Not only that, but an ism that stands in direct opposition to a great many of the things that make metal as music unique and special. Metal, to me (and Fenriz of Darkthrone, as well as many other musicians, from what I’ve read) is special because it is not directly consumerist, and because metal is first and foremost about the music. Whenever metal has strayed from that path toward posturing and imagism (Hair Metal, nu Metal, and much of Metalcore/Deathcore) it has fallen out of favor with the public and loyalists alike. Black metal is a possible exception to the rule, but the black metal imagery is A) being co-opted by the mainstream B)often ridiculed even among metalheads and C) quickly falling out of favor as the genre grows.

Consumerizing metal does nobody any good, and nobody wants it unless it directly benefits them. So, when Ms Gossowski claims:

I feel that women AND men should use every asset they have to further their career. Its a BUSINESS. This is how things work. If you got it, flaunt it. If you don’t, well, there’s plastic surgery for that (Fergie?).

Pardon me if I find it backward and wrong. Here’s a concept: ethical standards. We, as a community can speak against this sort of business practice, especially if, as Gossow claims, taking part in the calendar is not optional if bands want Revolver coverage.

I think metal is better than that.

I think we are better than that.

I know I’m better than that, that’s why I stopped supporting Revolver.

Gossowski apparently disagrees, going on to make blanket claims about male metal journalists as a whole:

Metal is primarily comprised of men. Men who will sit around and talk about these SAME chicks and all the dirty things they would do to them if given the opportunity. So WHY all of the sudden are you guys jumping behind Ms. Gossow when you bullshit with your friends and talk about this shit in your living room?

Ah, so it’s ok to be chauvinistic because we already are, then. Does that make any kind of sense? Gossowski: I don’t bullshit. And I don’t support this bullshit. And I never have. And I never will. (each day you breathe is more time to kill…[Lamb of God])

What I see here is a community of mostly men banding together behind a strong, respectable woman artist and trying to voice their opinions in favor of some change that would be positive for us all.

Way to shoot us in the fucking foot.

It seems like Gossowski’s real issue in grappling with this important topic is an inability to see beyond the present to a world of possibilities. She writes:

You know what’s an embarrassment to women? People who are ignorant enough to say that women shouldn’t create an identity OUTSIDE of their music. If they want that identity to be associated with being sexy, more power to them. In the end, it takes a big set of balls to put yourself in a position of such criticism.

You know what takes more balls (dubious term) than doing what women have been doing in bands of all sorts for years? Doing something new. Creating an identity outside of their music AND their image. I’m thinking of course of Jarboe, Diamanda Galas, and Jex Thoth—truly great women artists in metal. You will note none of their music is popular even by metal standards, but is unflinchingly respectable in quality.

Which brings me to Gossowski’s one good point:

Maybe Angela should have considered this: if she wants women to get more respect in metal, then maybe some of them should try making better music.

Yes. That is, in fact, the silver lining in her article, to me. Y’know what? Lacuna Coil DOES kind of suck, and Arch Enemy is the most generic melodic death metal act this side of Hypocrisy, but none of that makes Gossow less qualified to tackle this issue.

There is a vital lack of great women fronting (not just support playing) metal bands, but there are a few making great music: Aforementioned Jex Thoth, Brooklyn’s Atakke, Phoenix’s Landmine Marathon, even now-defunct local heroes Texas Prison Rodeo. None of them needed Revolver, especially not in its current state. They need fans, they need support. That’s why I’m pre-ordering Landmine Marathon’s debut now.

We as a community, I think, would be wiser, more respectable, and better off if we left these outdated, cliché, and offensive (to some) images of women in the past with Revolver magazine and work toward something new and better: a reframing of what it means to be woman in metal.

I don’t know how, I admit that, but the women I just mentioned are doing just that, which is more important than debating economic decisions, or hurling insults like children.

--however, I am feeling childish, so one more thing, to Ms Gossowski, if she is reading—

I did not want this to be personal, and to me, right now, it’s not, but you did say one, really terrible ad hominem thing about Gossow and people who, like she and I, think actively supporting Revolver’s HCiM is embarrassing:

You know who says things like that? Fucking ugly people. Ugly people who feel like the world owes them something.

You called me ugly. Now it’s time to ad hominem back. Here’s a story.

You and I covered the same show, dirtfest 13, for different publications.

Winds of Plague played there, at that time with woman keyboardist Kristen Randall, whom we both interviewed.

In your interview, despite your women’s studies minor, didn’t ask her a single thing about being a woman in the current metal community, an important issue and a big part of WoP’s intrigue.

In my interview, that same day, I did.

--I question your judgment, that’s all.--

A Band for Cancer: Gojira

2010-02-25T09:57:00.000-08:00

I was informed earlier that today is the International Day for the Fight Against Cancer, and as that thought rattled about in my cranium, it called me toward the band Gojira. I felt their music was full of insight into the feelings surrounding this day, and so I decided to write out those thoughts…

To an extent, all we have is addictions; not to drugs or behavioral practices only, but everything we as human beings enjoy is addictive. I’m a headbanger to the core now—what DOWN called a ‘Lifer’—but oftentimes I still find myself chasing the initial rushes of amazing feeling that consumed me when I was a young teenager walking my pooch and playing old Metallica albums so loud that I came home with ringing ears eager to start the disc over.

I’ll never feel that way again. My brain chemistry is changing and my memory is crystallizing with age. Such is the cycle of life, and I am on the path toward old age. Master of Puppets and Ride the Lightning still hold an almost austere nostalgic majesty to me, but they have ceased to speak to me as they once did, and this too is part of a life cycle. Metallica’s work back then was all about the conflict with authenticity, with being true to one’s own identity (Ironic, coming from three of the four men who brought us St. Anger, but I digress), so perhaps now that I feel authentic in my own identity, they no longer offer me any challenge, and in grappling with their art I find no succor.

Enter Gojira: a band for growing old.

I first saw Gojira in my hometown of Toledo in the main room of local venue Headliners—still one of my favorite places to see a show, and the only place I am familiar with where it is common practice for scenesters and heshers alike to climb industrial beams and crowd surf after a twenty foot drop… but I am digressing again. They were opening for Machine Head, Trivium, and Lamb of God. To this day it’s one of the best-formed lineups I’ve ever seen bore witness to.

Gojira were the odd band out: they were four Frenchmen in a lineup full of American bands, and by far the most progressive (or avant garde, pick a descriptor, I don’t care) act of the evening. I had never heard of them, but by the time they played the driving groove of ‘Flying Whales’ I was a fan, especially after Lamb of God frontman and personal hero Randy Blythe gave the band his personal blessing.

Lord, did they slay me. A week later I was playing their album From Mars to Sirius, although it failed to connect at the time. Three years later that album and its incredible successor The Way of All Flesh are mainstays of my evening strolls with my iPod.

To an extent I was predisposed to be a Gojira fan because they combine my favorite elements of several perennial favorite bands. Their riff style is brutal, but groovy and full of memorable licks and hooks just like aforementioned Lamb of God. They have a propensity for mathematically complex off-kilter rhythms in the vein of Meshuggah, but blend it with the sublime melodies and sweeping dynamics of Opeth. Most of all, they remind me of Metallica—riffs that stick in one’s mind like thorns and lyrics that excite the intellect while the music excites the animal brain. Admittedly they share Metallica’s great weaknesses—their songs are often quite similar to one another, and they tend to ride a groove for just one or two repetitions too long to keep things moving at a good clip.

Regardless, there is a very real energy to Gojira that makes their music charismatic and unavoidable, but it is not the energy of youth, it is the energy of a man raging against the entropy of existence.

Some of their poetic poignancy can once again be rooted back to Metallica: social consciousness is a major part of Gojira’s subject matter, specifically environmental responsibility. These guys love the nature of our homeworld with an earnest and furious passion, and they don’t need to walk half-naked in the woods covered in makeup to show it, because it’s in the music. While deathcore douchebags are trying to find darkness in the dried-up wells of serial killers and sexual perversion, Gojira have found truly evil inspiration—what poet Lorca would call Duende—in the way our species abuses mother earth. From Mars to Sirius is, to me a plea for help for a battered woman who cannot speak to us for herself—the earth goddess.

To Gojira, we are cancer to our world. To me, their music is in fact the fight against not cancer, but its hold over the human psyche.

They interact with their beliefs in an almost childlike, personal way (and are aware of this aspect of themselves, take for example this lyrical snippet from ‘Oroborus’ on the Way of All Flesh: “It seems like I always knew this/ since I'm a child I can feel it/ My inner light everlasting/ revolving within a circle”). Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than the beautiful animated video for their song "All the Tears."

It’s almost Hitchcockian, Joe Duplanier’s speakers are innocent men confronted by almost preternatural malice in their everyday lives, unable to cope, always blamed. When Randy Blythe guest vocals on “Adoration for None” from The Way of All Flesh he goes so far as to nearly embody those oppressive forces: “Driven to increase my own power/ by creation the purest choice/ Destined to rule my life/ and go the way of the flesh.”

It all comes back to that Headliner’s mosh pit, for me. I’m so masochistic when it comes to this sort of music (catholic upbringing ahoy) because the way the lyrics and music connect with my psyche makes me want to better myself. I ran in a circle like a moron, diving straight for the big bald Slayer-tee-shirted bruisers, looking for them to put me down. And they did. Their strikes and the feel of the floor seemed so real, so in the moment that I wanted the pain to force out the consumerist little whore in me.

I wanted every blow to remind me to recycle and not waste food, to buy organic, to quit smoking. To spit out the poison. The cleansing is what matters most to me about Gojira, not the drive and power of the music, not the way they use melodic samples to position themselves between tribal and metal in the locus of music history, not how everything they do (much like Mastodon, actually) seems to take place in the same mythology.

As The Way of All Flesh’s speaker learns to accept his growing age and mortality, so Gojira helps me deal with mine. I want to replace my warm, slimy addictions with the tough love of Gojira’s ethic sensibility. Their music hints toward something bigger—a meeting or negotiation between what lasts forever and what dies all too soon—me, and all of us mortals here on mother earth.

High on Fire's Snakes for the Divine Reviewed!

2010-02-25T07:17:00.000-08:00

True story: I never really ‘got’ High on Fire. I never really got Sleep, either—I found it just too slow without the atmosphere that makes Om palatable to me. Don’t get me wrong, Matt Pike’s music’s always been good, especially since Blessed Black Wings dominated my stereo as I was graduating from high school, but something about the way it all came together seemed unfinished without feeling raw, or living. High on Fire never held the gravitas that their lesser-known contemporaries Gates of Slumber did, until now.

Their new album, Snakes for the Divine, dropped on Tuesday. I purchased it based on the strength of word of mouth (even though the Frank Frazetta throwback album art is worth the price of admission alone. Seriously, dear reader, soak that beauty in) and I cannot stop listening to it. When lead single ‘Frost Hammer’ leaked weeks ago I was impressed at how much more there simply was to the song: Pike did his best to channel Tom G. Warrior of Celtic Frost and ends up topping him while the heavy guitar parts were simply more crushing, and the more psychedelic elements were more enveloping all around. Big deal, right? HoF has always had at least one great single per album (‘Devilution,’ ‘Rumors of War’).

'Frost Hammer' and other album tracks can be heard on High on Fire's myspace here.

Here’s the rub: the remainder of Snakes for the Divine is at least as good, if not better than, ‘Frost Hammer.’ The title track kicks things off with Pike’s most engrossing epic riff yet, showcasing more depth and range as a guitar player than he’s shown since Jerusalem. Pike’s voice is more unhinged and psychotic than ever before, but for once a casual listener could understand what the hell he’s talking about.

The lyrics are still fairly pedantic fantasy fluff with a decidedly slimy and gritty undertone, but Pike’s figured out how to deliver those lines with a real emotive force. Nowhere is this more evident than on heebie-jeebie inducing album standout ‘Bastard Samurai.’ Pike spends most of the song barely whispering (showing perhaps a hint of the Deftones?) before snarling “son of a bitch should bleed awhile,” with a palpable malignancy. This album is hard-boiled and all the better for it.

Most surprising of all is that Pike does not steal the show. After years of a revolving-door lineup, he seems to have found bandmates who can meet and exceed his own ability, if not creativity. Drummer Des Kensel and bassist Jeff Matz legitimately outplay Pike on ‘Ghost Neck’ and ‘Fire, Flood & Plague.’

Where HoF previously had a tendency to allow songs to overstay their welcome, this album is tight as a drum with only two songs exceeding the seven minute mark, and both of them deserving every second. Eight tracks, one interlude, no bullshit—hell yes.

Snakes for the Divine is not going to be giving anyone a transcendental experience--Matt Pike is an artist but not a philosopher, and his work reflects that lack of pretension. this is still great art, just maybe not fine art. Pike is keeping to his roots while the trend in metal right now is to reach toward something higher.

By dialing down the wankery and cranking the extreme ends of the band’s sound up past 11, High on fire may have written their opus. Snakes for the Divine is an early-but-strong album of the year contender. It is not leaving my car stereo anytime soon.

Where Metal and Pop Collide

2009-12-29T12:48:00.000-08:00

Islander at No Clean Singing and Elise at Reign in Blonde have been chatting up a storm about metalheads and our place in society thanks to an unlikely source of inspiration: white ‘rapper’ Ke$ha’s hit single ‘Tik Tok.’

The topic of debate: the us vs. them mentality. Don’t play dumb, you know what I’m talking about; the shit talkers and talkbackers, the jerks at concerts with their arms crossed scowling.

While this attitude has been an intimate part of the remarkable independence of metal culture for a long time (longer than mine, Islander, or Elise’s life spans), it comes with a price.

Do you know how often in my four years of college life people have been ‘shocked’ to find out that I appreciate Umphrey’s McGee, or that my hetero life mate in metal Jason knows almost every word on Dr. Dre’s The Chronic? Ridiculous. From what I understand talking with scenesters and heshers alike in the aftermath of various mosh pits is that this sort of thing’s fairly common, and we as metalheads have nobody to blame but ourselves.

But you know what? I don’t care.

I think one of the main strengths of metal music (and one of the things it shares most with Hip Hop musicians who made it possible for people like Ke$ha to be professional musicians) is that it captures an isolated sensibility intrinsic to humanity.

In my Critical Theory class, we called it the Other—mankind’s tendency to distance itself from what it doesn’t find totally acceptable. Heavy Metal, in a sense, is just a musical romanticization of the Other.

Think about the images that pop up in metal music over and over again: surviving the apocalypse, Lucifer’s fall, the mechanization of society, suicidal depression. All of those images and their accompanying stories told or untold appeal to the Stand-Alone Complexes in all of us. Black metal finds the sorrow there, while Power metal finds the heroism in it, but they all deal with that us-vs-them mindset.
So how can we blame metalheads for feeding into one of the major tenants of the music they love?

How about we blame them for being hypocrites? Because that mentality has also been a tenant of girl-fronted pop music for years, admittedly in a more gendered context.

Does anybody remember Christina Aguilera’s ‘Fighter’? How about Destiny’s Child’s ‘Survivor’? I know you remember those songs. One must admit—some of the imagery in the videos is certainly ‘Metal’ is it not?

Of course, none of that attitude is in ‘Tik Tok,’ but I think you could find it in another contemporary pop superstar,one whose new video happens to be a love letter to ultraviolent 80’s sci fi movies.

When I listen to Lady GaGa, something says Black Metal in my head. Metalsucks has already discussed the metal in her imagery, but what about the music itself? The woman is openly completely self-centered (how very Anton LaVey) much like some well-loved metalheads we all know. The entire focus of her lyrics are superficial and shallow hypercommercialism and sexuality, which is very chic right now and not very metal at all, until you realize how intelligent the woman who shaped the product and wore the songs must be. Using monumental songwriting talent to create not amazing art but instead what amounts to a roman triumph in the name of the most insignificant forces in American society that by happenstance also RULE American society…

Moment of Zen? Lady GaGa is a Nihilist.